Mobile Payment Magazine

BOKU Partners with O2 and mpass for Direct Mobile Billing Services in Germany

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Telefónica O2 Germany, a provider of broadband and mobile services, and BOKU Inc., an online mobile payments company, today announced a direct carrier billing relationship. Under the agreement, O2 customers can  use BOKU’s payment platform to purchase virtual and digital goods ranging from .09 Euros to 30 Euros. O2 customers pay for goods by entering their mobile number and charging directly to their mobile phone carrier bill.

O2 is part of Telefónica, a global provider of broadband and mobile services, and the second largest carrier group in the world. O2’s mpass system allows direct carrier billing for the purchase of virtual, digital and physical goods.

This new partnership integrates the BOKU mobile payments platform into O2 Germany’s operator billing interface, enabling the following features:

  • Support for one-off and subscription payments in Germany
  • Full pricing granularity from .09 Euros to 30.00 Euros
  • Authorization and Capture APIs with refund support
  • In-App Billing support
  • Web Billing support

“This agreement opens up the opportunity for BOKU merchants to offer payment for physical goods as well as virtual and digital goods,” said James Patmore, Managing Director, BOKU in EMEA. “Our partnership with O2 confirms our vision of evolving online mobile payments into a range of new vertical markets.”

“Understanding customer needs and merchant requirements in regards to our payment products is essential for continuing our success story in the mobile payment area. A close collaboration with BOKU ensures we position ourselves closely to the key players in the market,” said Michiel van Eldik, Managing Director Wholesale and Partner Management, Telefónica O2 Germany.

“We want to provide our customers with a safe, reliable, and convenient payment solution to pay for goods, be they virtual or physical,” continued O2’s van Eldik. “BOKU’s mobile payments platform has the right blend of technology and finance-grade infrastructure to mesh well with O2 customer needs.”

BOKU’s bank-grade mobile payment service is available to online merchants and publishers on a global scale. The BOKU service enables merchants and publishers to drive incremental revenue by offering carrier billing as a payment option to their customers. BOKU is connected to 230 mobile operators in more than 65 countries, and provides access to more than 2.5 billion potential customers who can pay by mobile.

Source: Business Wire

Mobile Payments: Introduction

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Mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer, and mobile wallet generally refer to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device. Instead of paying with cash, cheque, or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods.

Although the concept of using non-coin-based currency systems has a long history, it is only recently that the technology to support such systems has become widely available.

In developing countries mobile payment solutions have been deployed as a means of extending financial services to the community known as the “unbanked” or “underbanked,” which is estimated to be as much as 50% of the world’s adult population, according to Financial Access’ 2009 Report “Half the World is Unbanked”. These payment networks are often used for micropayments.

There are four primary models for mobile payments:

Some mobile payment solutions are also used in developing countries for micropayments.

Source: Wikipedia

Direct Mobile Billing

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The consumer uses the mobile billing option during checkout at an e-commerce site—such as an online gaming site—to make a payment. After two-factor authentication involving a PIN and One-Time-Password, the consumer’s mobile account is charged for the purchase. It is a true alternative payment method that does not require the use of credit/debit cards or pre-registration at an online payment solution such as PayPal, thus bypassing banks and credit card companies altogether. This type of mobile payment method, which is extremely prevalent and popular in Asia, provides the following benefits:

  1. Security – Two-factor authentication and a risk management engine prevents fraud.
  2. Convenience – No pre-registration and no new mobile software is required.
  3. Easy – It’s just another option during the checkout process.
  4. Fast – Most transactions are completed in less than 10 seconds.
  5. Proven – 70% of all digital content purchased online in some parts of Asia uses the Direct Mobile Billing method

Source: Wikipedia

BilltoMobile Provides Direct Mobile Billing for Online Purchases by AT&T Wireless Customers

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Online purchases can be billed directly to existing AT&T wireless service accounts, with the new agreement between BilltoMobile and AT&T.

BilltoMobile will provide its Direct Mobile Billing payment service to AT&T’s wireless subscribers as part of a trial service.

“We’re excited to collaborate with AT&T and offer their customers the benefits of a convenient, user-friendly mobile payment solution,” said Jim Greenwell, CEO, BilltoMobile. “This form of billing is the logical next step in the e-commerce mobile payments landscape.”

BilltoMobile’s growing list of participating online merchants will provide AT&T subscribers with access to mobile payments on several top online digital goods and services sites.

BilltoMobile continues to attract major online merchants with its secure Direct Mobile Billing approach. Merchants find that offering mobile payments drives significant incremental revenue from a wide variety of consumers and for a lot of different reasons including convenience, security and accessibility.

BilltoMobile provides a secure payment option for mobile-centric consumers, and the interface requires no registration, no set up, no application or downloads and no association with other financial instruments, such as credit or bank cards. Purchases completed with participating merchants are secure, and take only two steps and a few seconds to complete.

More information: BilltoMobile.com.

Source: BilltoMobile

Using Your Phone as a Credit Card

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Mobile payments – simply using your mobile to pay for something – is relatively new but already one of the fast growing alternative payment methods catching on in Europe and Asia.  Juniper Researchers estimate that mobile payments in the combined global market is forecast to reach over $600 billion worldwide by 2013. What do mobile payments mean in real terms and what options are already out there?

By 2013, according to Juniper Researchers, this type of payment in the global combined payments market could grow from its current $170 billion to over $600 billion. So what are mobile payments and what are the options? There are four primary methods for mobile payments :

Direct Mobile Billing is used as an option at checkout on e-commerce sites involving a PIN and a password. It is deemed secure, fast, convenient and much easier to use than online payment methods such as PayPal. This method is very popular in many parts of Asia and the preferred method of payment for purchases with digital content.

Mobile Web Payments (WAP) where the user has already downloaded applications onto their mobiles to enable payment to be made. Again this method is reportedly easy to use with high reported follow-on sales and good customer reviews.

Premium SMS based payments can be made when the user sends their payment request via SMS text message or they can use a short code and a premium charge is then added to their phone bill. The payment information is then relayed back to the retailer and the sale is completed. This type of payment can be time-consuming if the text messaging speed is slow to send and this method is a less popular option than mobile web payments and direct mobile billing.

Contactless Near Field Communication (NFC) is used by a consumer with a mobile equipped with smartcard waves near a reader module and can be used in actual stores or for transportation services. The payment can be then deducted from a pre-paid account, bank account or charged to the mobile bill. Whilst popular in Japan this method of mobile payment requires a complex supporting infrastructure. This is probably the least popular method in global terms.

Source: TXT2Get —
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